These are the ones that Fedco in Maine describes as the earliest of the early. They are the first good crop of in-ground grown potatoes for me.
The ones I grew using the container method were a week or two earlier. They roast fine, but in potato salad are a little too chewy for my taste, despite cooking longer. Now to see how these work out.
I think this yield was from about three plants. Not a lot different from container method. These do seem bigger.
Here are the main twelve stars. Each is different. There is one more to complete.
I'm happy with this pattern. When completed, the stars will be surrounded by larger stars that connect, or by diamond shapes. I think I'll use a light blue checker pattern for the surrounding star blocks and a light grey or different light blue for the diamonds. Also, there will be a slightly different center star. In some, the white background shows a bit of the floor color. When completed, it will have white batting and I hope that doesn't show.
What looks like black is actually dark blue. There are three shades of grey.
This pattern is based on a homespun type quilt published in Today's Quilter by UK quilt designer Lynn Goldsworthy. My biggest changes from that are the colors and fabric choices, and it looks quite different.
More flowers. I couldn't help myself LOL.
Crocosmia
With the garlic harvested, I cleaned up the raised bed. I added coffee grounds (for nitrogen and organic natter) and biochar (for magical goodness). I watered it, let it soak for a few hours, dug it over, then hand-cultivated. Depending on who you read, Contender beans start bearing in about 50 to 55 days (Seeds'n'Such says 40 days but I don't believe it) one of the fastest. They are also considered excellent, stringless green beans.
I also replaced the useless soaker hoses, which I kept tripping over, with 1/4" tubes that have emitters every 6". The emitters are 1/2 gallon per hour, and the work much better than the soaker hoses which quickly clog up until they don't work at all. This time I didn't make loops with the tubing, which was part of the problem with the soaker hoses. Of course, I covered it all with anti-bird netting to give the beans a chance to grow.
Those seeds are pricey, but a packet that size can produce at least fifteen pounds of fresh green beans. Maybe more. I might see if I can leave a few plants to mature and make seeds for next year.
Today I harvested the main garlic raised bed. I had let it dry out to cure the bulbs a bit, which made the soil hard and difficult to dig. The variety is "Music", thought to originate in Italy.
Before.
After. These garlic bulbs are huge.
Now they will need to cure for a week or two in dry conditions but not in sun. I'll cut off the tops tomorrow.
Salpiglossis. I've never grown this before.
Statice. I've never grown these before.
Rudbeckias. I grew these from seeds, starting mid-winter. They are just beginning to bloom.
Lilies.
Tigridia. This has survived multiple transformations of the kitchen garden over the years, and continues to bloom each year.
Part of meditation garden so far. It's Sunday so no construction activity, which is nice. Blooming has just begun, but there are lots of butterflies, pollinating insects, even dragonflies visiting. These little videos are kind of low quality. It's much nicer in person.
It's a mess, but it's MY mess LOL. I grow a lot in this confined space. The raised beds help a lot.
The outdoor cooking station is almost done. Ning did most of the work, although I did the framing. The old concrete patio needed some leveling compound, and we had the stone tiles in the garage. It still needs a backsplash so the house siding isn't splatter stained.
I ordered some oil cloth and made a cover for the range. No pattern, just measurements.
I've been calling this a summer kitchen, but that might be an exaggeration. Cooking station seems more accurate. Still, now baking and range too cooking can be outdoors, and not heat up the house. With the roof, we can cook if there is light rain.
Next, I'll make a cover for the propane tank, and side shades so the wind doesn't blow the stove top flames too much. The stove cover was a test - I've never sewn oil cloth before. It's a learning curve but went OK overall. I used denim-strength polyester thread on the old Morris sewing machine.
The pie cherries ripened. There were almost no sweet cherries this year, and fewer pie cherries. Still, there were enough pie cherries to make filling for three pies.
I used the outdoor stove this time. It worked perfectly. I think it needed less gas to heat compared to inside cooking, because it was a hot afternoon. Also, baking it didn't heat up the kitchen.
This time I used Clear Jel starch instead of flour. The filling is more clear, and redder.p instead of pink.
I made two batches of pie filling and froze them. They will keep a year in the freezer. It's much easier and faster to make a pie from a frozen filling, instead of fresh. I think the flavor is the same.
This is the second batch of container-grown red potatoes.
Compared to the same starts, grown in the ground, the container grown potatoes had nicer, finer skin, no scabbiness, were a bit oblong instead of round. The flavor is the same. Size is similar. I think the container grown made for more potatoes, much easier harvest. Photo: grown in ground, on the top. Container grown, on the bottom.
Meanwhile, I thought the soil mix in those containers was too water retentive. The bottoms were soggy. I found an unused partial bag of cactus soil and another of perlite, and mixed those into to soil in the bags. That should improve drainage. Then I planted bush bean seeds in the modified soil mix.
This is the variety "Blue Lake". I grew them last year, good bean with good yield.
With beans, peas, corn, a cover is needed so birds so up all of the seeds and eat them.
Squashes are one of my favorites. They are bee pollinated, and it seems like there are few bees this year. Especially honeybees. I hand pollinate anyway.
Here is the big squash patch, with Burgess Buttercup, Saffron Summer Squash, and Costata Romanesco Summer Squash (zucchini). That last one is monstrous in size.
I want at least one of each to be pure, so that I can save seeds for next year and have them predictable. I seek male and female flowers about to open, and cover them with organza gift bags. Then tomorrow I can use the males to pollinate the same variety females. That way, I don't have to worry about the few bees that are there, cross pollinating different varieties.
The squash plants are interesting. Fordham Zucchini and Galeux d'Eysines so far have made only male flowers, and Burgess Buttercup and Dakota Dessert Squash made only females until today. The Costata and Saffron made both, but initially Saffron made only female flowers. So just for eating, I cross pollinated Saffron squash with Costata pollen (They are the same species), which worked fine. Later in the summer, I want to save seeds from those too, so will isolate those flowers in a month or so.
There actually are some native pollinating insects, as seen on these cilantro flowers.
I really like it when the summer squashes start bearing. I planted less this year so I won't be overwhelmed.
The potatoes were from sprouted grocery potatoes I planted late winter in a fabric container. Not a massive harvest, three pounds and a few ounces from one container. Still, not bad.
